


you've given my past some thought too

by kanjogirl



Category: Pacific Rim (2013)
Genre: F/M, Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder - PTSD, Protectiveness
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-10-23
Updated: 2013-10-23
Packaged: 2017-12-30 07:01:56
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,358
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1015583
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/kanjogirl/pseuds/kanjogirl
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>The whole beating someone up because they just insulted your partner is a two way street between Raleigh and Mako.</p>
            </blockquote>





	you've given my past some thought too

Honestly, Mako isn’t much a fan of Hong Kong. It’s not the loudness and bustling, not the underground dealings, not the culture, not living here for a bit too long or anything like that. It’s simply because she had a one night stand with a guy and he turned out to be an asshole. Stupid reason, she knows, so she keeps it to herself.   
  
  
Except Raleigh knows why her eyes slightly narrow when Tendo Choi shouts they’re going out for Last Saturdays—the last saturday of every month, crewmembers go out to drink and whatever. Stacker had stated he didn’t mind if she went with Tendo one time (which of course led to the one night stand; stupid mistake and Mako hardly makes those) and she hasn’t gone since. She’s been able to avoid the offers—not that there would be many since people don’t ask her to do anything with them unless they were on close terms with the Marshall.   
  
  
It’s a solid eighteen months since the battle of the breech. The Jaeger program had been continued but for other purposes, such as relief efforts and the like. It’s taken flight and both Mako and Raleigh had received offers to be stationed in other areas but Herc, now current Marshall, had suggested they remain at the Hong Kong base for future pilots and crewmembers and assisting the newbies (and Raleigh caught the quiet, “And to stay together,” muttered under Herc’s breath). They appreciated the excuse, not that they had to say it.   
  
  
While they haven’t gotten the chance to pilot a Jaeger again yet (construction is slow when you’re starting from scratch), the both of them notice some things have changed and some things have stayed the same. Raleigh won’t lie about how he kinda likes how they spend more time together, late nights, preoccupying themselves with whatever in silence—as long as they can be in the same room. Mako happens to like it when they can stand next to each other and separately congratulated but recognized as a team—the same level.   
  
  
"—C’mon, Mako, it’s just a few drinks."   
  
  
Mako knows Tendo doesn’t understand her aversion towards partying but she knows Raleigh does. He’s right next to her and his huge arm comes to wrap around her shoulders. She visibly relaxes and glances up to him. He smiles and she knows he gets it.   
  
  
For a time, Mako hadn’t completely understood the results offered in textbooks, filled with examples and explanations about what happens between drift partners. She remembers running a hand over the text and frowning slightly because some of it just didn’t make sense. How did the relationship extend from the battlefield? What kind of bond did the neural handshake create? Or did it simply build from something that was already there?   
  
  
Now Mako realizes what it’s all about. That mutual understanding that whispers softly between them. It’s quiet and soothing; such a good transition from the military base that surrounds them, with yells and clashing of metals, curses and loud engines. She appreciates this and for some reason she thinks it’ll go away. Raleigh doesn’t think it will and with that impression left in her mind, Mako wonders if he’s right. This is what she adores because in a crowded room, she can still hear him say,  _I’ll be there, Mako._

So she goes with them, tucked underneath Raleigh’s arm, marveling how much warmer he always is. That’s something she had made note of when they first met. Simply standing next to him in the clammy, cool hallways, he had leaned in a bit further than she was ever used to. Closeness is not something she had become accustomed to until Drifting with him. But even then, he was standing just centimeters away and she flick her gaze to his and felt the heat that came off his body. She almost missed what he was trying to convince her of doing. (When she had kept him close in the pod, she honestly believed he was gone because he was too cold.)  
  
  
Raleigh tilts his head her way and she meets his eyes full of question. He knows she’s reminiscing but he wants to hear about it. She’d rather not say. Besides, she’s quite sure that memory has been imprinted in his mind. Which he, thankfully, as never said anything about (she knows why), including how he had once caught her staring at his shirtless body. Yeah…she’s really grateful about him never saying anything to embarrass her.  
  
  
When they finally reach the bars, Raleigh goes for all the scotch and whiskey he can get his hands on. When he turns to see Mako’s disapproval on her face, he remembers a drinking party a few months ago that took place in the hanger bay. It took a lot of drinking on Raleigh’s part to finally get drunk and he knows the look she’s giving him means she’s not interested in staying long. Raleigh makes a note to just buy a few drinks and that will be it.   
  
  
But pretty soon, both of them are downing a shot together and he marvels in the way she doesn’t wince at all and Mako eyes him when he suggests another. He takes that as a no and doesn’t ask again, knowing better than to test Mako Mori at this point. They stay seated together and he thinks that she might be having a better time than the last time around she had been out in the city. And Mako thinks that, maybe, yeah, she is. And they’re both pretty content with just being here together, loud music overhead, laughter and shouts all around but the quiet whisper that floats between them.   
  
  
Raleigh starts to get drunk and Mako tells him she won’t be inclined to be the one dragging his body to his room and he gives her a lazy grin that has a hidden joke. He doesn’t have to say it but Mako scoffs anyway. He begins rambling about their current project, how excited he is to get in a Jaeger again, even if it’s not theirs. (She likes that. He keeps using words like that and she realizes she’s been saying ‘we’ and ‘our’ a lot too.) He makes a small comment about how he can’t wait to Drift together and she gives him a look, almost expressionless but he knows what it means. Nothing terrible but it means it’s something they don’t talk about; they just  _know_  and it’s like some unwritten rule. Raleigh quiets and she fills the silence with her own words. And things are better again.

 

At some point, she has to go to the bathroom—she hates alcohol, why does she do this to herself? And Raleigh is left at the bar counter, sitting at the stool with his ankles crossed as his legs dangle. That’s the last image she sees of him before she comes back out, brushing the hair out of her face and halting in her steps.  
  
  
Mako hadn’t expected to feel a tug in his direction, that mental connection that seems like leftovers from the Drift.   
  
  
And then there’s that whisper in the room again, a pull, not completely heard but felt.   
  
  
 _Mako Mako Mako Mako Mako Mako Mako Mako Mako Mako Mako Mako Mako Mako Mako_  
  
  
Mako remembers when they were in battle and when they began losing in a fight, she’d hear her name being said again and again. Not just aloud but in her head. It was his signature, his impression that would repeat her name like it was the only word he knew. This is all she heard before she had lost oxygen when they crossed the Breech.   
  
  
 _Mako Mako Mako Mako Mako Mako Mako Mako Mako Mako Mako Mako Mako Mako Mako_  
  
  
What Mako won’t find out until later is that while she had been gone, a male had approached him. White, American accent, dark hair and a goatee and so very drunk. Raleigh had no clue why he was having a problem with him until the guy said something about ‘looking at his girl’. Raleigh had turned around to see who he was talking about but a hand came down on his left arm (he had winced, that’s his bad shoulder) and shoved him against the counter. Raleigh stood immediately, narrowing his eyes.   
  
  
The situation was only going to spiral out of control, especially with his confusion and the other male’s intent to be violent. Raleigh made the mistake of telling him it would be a mistake to pick a fight with him.   
  
  
And that’s when the male grabbed Raleigh’s collar, brought him closer so he could smell the bourbon on his breath and said, “Don’t get too cocky, kid.”  
  
  
All Raleigh felt after that was his head being pounded onto the bar’s counter and a sudden bombardment of memories.   
  
  
Yancy’s suddenly rushing through his mind, giving him that tired smile and when Raleigh blinks, his brother is being torn from their Jaeger out into the mouth of a hurricane. He feels sick, terrified and an overwhelming feeling of helplessness. He can’t do a thing and memories simply keep coming at him.   
  
  
Raleigh’s shaking, holding the counter’s edge with one hand, white knuckling it, when Mako arrives upon the scene. There’s some guy standing over him, leering and Mako’s eyes flash.   
  
  
"Not too cocky now, are we?" the male yells over the music, swaying in his drunkenness.   
  
  
Something tightens within her chest. She doesn’t see the security guards coming through the crowd. She doesn’t see the grimace Raleigh had made at the words thrown into his face. She doesn’t see anything but red. Words float through her mind—Yancy’s words. The impression left from Raleigh’s trauma had dragged across Mako’s mind. She knows.   
  
  
So when she gives an uppercut to the much larger guy, Mako doesn’t necessarily stop there. She’s on top of him, swinging and punching until someone forcefully extracts her.

 

When they’re thrown out, Mako’s hair is sticking to her face and her knuckles are bruised but she almost doesn’t notice. Tendo calls for a duty van to pick them up and she knows there’s probably going to be some counseling written up by Herc. But for some reason, Mako isn’t completely worried about it.   
  
  
Raleigh’s quiet, they both know why. He’s blinking to get rid of the memories and they slump against the side of a building, waiting for the pick up. He’s scooted close to her. In this moment, Raleigh’s not sure why he’s so terrified she’ll go. And it’s strange because he’s never thought about it that way before—he thought they’d stick together but he’s having these pictures of Yancy being torn from him and this scares him. And he wants her to know it.  
  
  
He realizes he’s calmed down and thinks with some dread that he’s probably going to have to get treatment for his issues soon. Because a line from his brother and a hard knock on the head threw him too far. And he thinks that it’s Mako who might have caught him.  
  
  
Glancing down to the smaller form snuggled next to him as they sit on the sidewalk, against a cement wall, Raleigh’s eyes meet hers.   
  
  
That whisper floats between them. They both know.   
  
  
Reaching over, he finds her right hand and gently caresses it under concerned eyes. He brushes his thumb over the back of her hand, tight lipped. His chest tightens.  
  
  
"It’s okay," he murmurs before kissing her fingers for a moment.   
  
  
He lowers her hand and she allows him to hold it there in his lap as he stares ahead of them in a daze. Her lips twitch with a small, ironic smile when she thinks it’s funny how he tries to comfort her, even when he’s the one who needs it. She leans further into him and they sigh out together.   
  
  
"You were right," he rasps as he has an arm on her shoulders again and she has an arm around his waist. They make it to his bedroom and she opens it. "Hong Kong can suck."  
  
  
"I did not use those words," she says, somewhat mocking offense. Though she knows his way of rephrasing. Mako hadn’t even  _told_  him anything.  
  
  
He chuckles and lands on his bed. She glances around the room with a sigh, looking for a water bottle and finds what she’s looking for. Handing it over to him, Mako wrinkles her nose, knowing better than to say anything about going out to drink. When he darts his gaze her way, she can tell he already gets the message. Next time they go out, she’s the one who will be drinking and he gets to babysit, she thinks with some vindictiveness but she knows it won’t happen.  
  
  
Easing down on the side of his bed, she takes in her surroundings, breathing in. He’s laying down, one arm over his forehead but she can feel his eyes on her. His gaze is more comforting now than their initial meeting. It’s because Mako has a pretty good idea of what he’s thinking and it’s usually something that wraps her up in admiration and care and some fault. How he sees her has given her more insight than a textbook had ever tried doing.  
  
  
There’s a moment when Raleigh opens his mouth to say something but closes it again. They don’t really talk about certain things. Like Yancy or feelings or anything like that. He sometimes forgets that she’s seen into Yancy’s mind too and it’s like somehow she shares the nightmares he has and he has hers. Mako understands and he’s suddenly grateful for how that turned out.   
  
  
When she gets up to leave, he says a hoarse, “Hey…”  
  
  
 _Stay._  
  
  
Mako’s back down on the bed and it doesn’t matter how small the bed is, there’s room enough for drift partners. She sleeps on her stomach and he sleeps on his back. He’s on the outside while she’s stuck between him and the wall but she’s too tired to really care.   
  
  
In the morning, they deal with the hangovers but at least it’s together.

**Author's Note:**

> Written for a prompt at livejournal.


End file.
